John Jumper, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Demis Hassabis for developing AlphaFold, announced he is leaving Google DeepMind after nearly 9 years to join AI startup Anthropic [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Jumper publicly confirmed his departure on social media on June 19 and 20, 2026, expressing gratitude to DeepMind and calling it “a special place” he will continue to follow with interest [2, 3, 10, 4, 5, 6]. Jumper said DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis "took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD, and the entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science" [5]. Hassabis said, “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine” [6].
AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence system that predicts 3D protein structures from genetic sequences. It has predicted over 200 million protein structures, accelerating biomedical research globally [2, 3, 6, 7, 8]. Jumper's work helped open new possibilities for drug discovery and molecular biology.
Jumper's departure comes amid broader shifts in the AI talent landscape. Another senior Google AI executive, Noam Shazeer, co-lead of Google’s Gemini model, also left DeepMind around the same week to join OpenAI [2, 5, 9]. Analysts say startups like OpenAI and Anthropic offer top researchers better terms and fewer bureaucratic constraints than larger firms like Google, which faces challenges commercializing AI tools [2, 7, 8]. DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said, “OpenAI and Anthropic have an advantage over tech giants like Google because they can offer better terms and less bureaucracy, letting researchers focus on developing superintelligence” [2].
Anthropic recently raised $30 billion in a G-round of funding and reached a $965 billion valuation in its H round. It is aggressively expanding its global team, including holding its first physical event in Singapore post-April 2026 [3]. However, Anthropic is currently engaged in legal and regulatory disputes with the US government following a Commerce Department ban on selling its advanced AI models to foreign users, citing national security concerns [2, 7]. Former President Donald Trump stated he no longer considers Anthropic a national security threat, noting the company has acted responsibly since the ban [2].
Google and Anthropic maintain a complex relationship involving competition and cooperation. Alphabet is a major Anthropic investor and provides infrastructure through Google Cloud. Google holds major AI advantages including its cloud platform, multiple AI model lines, and extensive global user base [9].
Jumper previously helped lead AlphaFold’s groundbreaking advances, including predicting over 200 million protein structures during his DeepMind tenure of nearly nine years [1, 3, 5, 6]. He said, “GDM is a special place, and I’ll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next” [10]. Jumper’s move to Anthropic follows the company’s large fundraises and ongoing expansion despite legal challenges.
Anthropic’s regulatory dispute and talent-driven growth will continue to be closely watched in the coming months.
